Is that my last day, or ‘all’ of our last day? Don’t agree with second premise, and believe that is your interpretation of some future, falsely presumed, last day, but MY last day on this earth, this is an excellent question. So….love you, David.

http://nakedpastor.com nakedpastor

Thanks Mark. Yes, our last day is the last day. I hope the cartoon has the same effect.

http://theoldadam.com/ Steve Martin

Our hearts are what prevent us from loving people…and God, for that matter.

As Jesus said, “the hearts of man are wicked”.

The Book doesn’t do that. But it exposes the fact of it.

That’s why Jesus had to come. He didn’t come down here for shits and giggles.

Derek A Collins

I love the way God, in this cartoon, looks like a dog with a false beard!

Who’s to say God DOESN’T look like a dog with a false beard? 😉

Carol

Derek, that reminds me of the old, but still funny, joke:

Q. What does a dyslexic agnostic insomniac do?

A. S/he lies awake nights wondering if there is a dog.

Heidi

I love this David.

Gary

This is a question I find myself asking of religion now all the time.

I have yet to hear a satisfactory answer.

Richard

It must be nice to be in a position where you have never had to physically fight an enemy who would love to kill you or rape your wife or torture your children in front of you. Easy to say you love everyone if that hasn’t happened or is about to happen.

Gary

Richard I am curious as to your comment. Do you believe David is implying that to love people means we forfeit the right to protect our loved ones? Your scenario is totally outside the scope of the intent of the drawing in my opinion. Religion has caused enormous amounts of abuse and pain merely for the reason others believe differently. Often the oppressors believe they are granted some sort of license to hate and attack entire groups of people.

How does this in any way translate to your scenario?

I believe the call to love is the greatest commandment and the law of love the only law left for the Christian. I also believe that requires me to do what I can to protect my wife and family from harm. Rest assured, if you decide to break into my home with the intent to kill me or rape my wife or torture my children in front of me, I will kill you.

Joseph

As a parent, I have to teach my children the rules and enforce them. It is my responsibility. When I correct them, I do it out of love, not out of hate. From a child’s, or rebellious, self-centered teenager’s perspective, a parent is often viewed as mean, out of touch, or hateful when what they want to conflicts with the rules.

God won’t be asking me this question, because He knows the love in my heart.

Kris

I strongly believe that part of being a Christian is loving people that we don’t like to love.

It is is easy to love those who look like us, think like us and are Christian like us. But there is no commandment that says we only should love those we can relate to and in fact we are called to love “the lease of these.”

There is nothing wrong with self-defense from someone meaning to do you harm.

jeannie

I appreciate your comments Richard. All we need is love can have elements of being passive, a feeling, and a let go, let God mentality.

Time does not allow me to go on but what you bring up is worthy of much conversation.

http://thoughts-brigitte.blogspot.com Brigitte

Romans 5:10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Joseph

“an old book”, huh? Lower-case, even? The Word of God, written by Man, but edited by the Holy Spirit (God), interpreted over 3800 years by Man under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For a generation to pick up a book and say, “The teachings of millenniums are wrong,” is about as self-centered and arrogant as I can imagine.

Gary

“The Word of God, written by Man, but edited by the Holy Spirit (God), interpreted over 3800 years by Man under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

Joseph…How do you know this to be true?

You accuse us of being “self centered” and “arrogant” so you clearly must have some irrefutable proof that the bible is the “Word of God”. Simply having a belief that differs from yours is not necessarily self centered or arrogant in any way.

Gary

BTW Carol…I hope you are paying attention.

Michael

I’m partly with Joseph. The Word is irrefutably inspired and the truth. Accusing strangers of being self centred or arrogant isn’t helpful or found in the Bible. This cartoon is interesting in that David leaves the viewer to interpret the meaning. It may for some lead to conclusions that the author is being blasphemous and for others the interpretation may be that the author is pointing out failures in religion. Guys don’t let your own interpretation inspire you in to divisive words though. As Christians we are taught by Jesus to ponder on it for a while – go AWOL for 40 days first, walk in others shoes. Show some empathy and love your brothers. There is already enough hate – let’s show the world we have been set apart by a God who loves us unconditionally. What’s that, I hear someone knocking – for Your sake open the door

Heidi

I find it interesting how each of our first impressions of this cartoon seemed to differ so much. I also find some of the first impressions disturbing to me, however, I went with my first thought when I saw it and that was, everyone is worthy of love, no matter their race, age, sex, or sexual orientation…etc. I believe God loves us all and that is what I saw in this cartoon today.

Gary

Michael I like your post and the tone of it very much. I would like to point out though that your claim that the bible is “irrefutably inspired and the truth” is far from irrefutable. (For the record…I believe it was inspired and contains much truth) But for this claim to be “irrefutable” it would require that one can prove it in a way beyond doubt or speculation. clearly it is a statement of faith and as such…not irrefutable.

Caryn LeMur

Derek: for what it is worth, I thought the picture showed God wearing head-phones… maybe He was into walkmans?

lol… Caryn

http://www.prayerpunk.com PrayerPunk

Hey Richard, having been in a situation like what you describe, I find it more important to love. It can be to easy to fall into righteous anger and hate, or to lose faith in humanity. That is why it is so important to love. Love makes up for a multitude of sins, which is to say it heals. Do you remember the Amish reaction to the man who killed those kids? They fought violence with love.

Caryn LeMur

Joseph: please help me understand your two posts:

At 12:27 you posted that you were sure God would not ask you ‘the question’ because your heart had love.

At 1:27 you focused on an implied insult due to the term ‘old book’ and use of ‘lower case font’ in a cartoon. You also labeled questioning as indicative of ‘a generation’ that was arrogant and self-centered.

Not an attack… but… could you define the term ‘love’ as you use it, or have it in your heart?

Sincerely; Caryn

Carol

Joseph, Perhaps David wasn’t implying that the Scripture was wrong as much as he was implying that our interpretation of the teachings from Scripture have been wrong.

Or, since he mentioned “verses” from the bible, perhaps he was implying that taking text out of context has been wrong as in “text without context is pretext.

Or perhaps he was implying neither or nothing.

I find David’s cartoons to be very cryptic much of the time. And then we proceed to reveal more “truth” about ourselves than we do Truth about God.

I nominate David for Catalyst-of-the-Year in the theological category.

http://nakedpastor.com nakedpastor

Thanks Carol. I humbly accept. What a great compliment!

Carol

David, it is your “follow the question” approach that keeps me “hooked” on this blog.

Are you going to write another book soon? Can I be in it? With my name changed to protect the guilty, of course!

http://nakedpastor.com nakedpastor

I’m working on many projects Carol. Why would you want to be in the book? LOL

Carol

I rather fancy the idea of being part of a composite character.

When people tell me that they believe in reincarnation, I say, “So do I, a genetic composite reincarnation.” The DNA of many ancestors is in our blood and genes have *memes*, which may explain why we sometimes get that deja vu feeling even though we know we’ve never been here before.

We may be a unique composite; but no one is a 100% orginal, which scientifically challenges the hell out of the European Enlightenment’s excessive individualism, whether it be religious or political, no?

giordana

carol well said.

cass

it seems to me joseph meant that making absolute statements against the bible is arrogant, not the questioning of it. To absolutely state “the bible is _________” instead of “i think the bible could be __________”